But By All Means, Do Try Your Luck in the Office Pool

The Gallery column of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Sandbox.com is offering college basketball fans $10 million, and all they have to do is fill out a perfect, 64-team bracket for the NCAA tournament that begins in March.

But it will take a miracle for anybody to collect. Mathematicians figure that picking all games correctly is more difficult than winning a pick-six state lottery twice in succession.

Even a college basketball expert who can pick games at a 70% clip has only a 1-in-5.7-billion chance of collecting this prize, said Kenneth Alexander, a mathematics professor at USC. If you don’t follow the sport, your odds could be as high as nine quintillion--that’s nine followed by 18 zeros--to one.

“I think the $10 million is pretty safe; it’s not going anywhere,” Alexander said.

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Trivia time: Who holds the NCAA Division I basketball record for steals in a season?

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Reasonable reply: Comedy writer Alex Kaseberg, on Tonya Harding’s not-guilty plea to charges she threw a hubcap at her boyfriend and bloodied his face by punching him:

“When asked why she attacked her boyfriend, she said: ‘I would have hired somebody to do it, but good help is so hard to find these days.’ ”

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More on Harding: Bill Conlin in the Philadelphia Daily News: “Bad girl, bad girl, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you.”

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Difficult task: The Viagra car failed to make the field for the Daytona 500. Said Martin Fennelly of the Tampa Tribune: “One rumor: When Viagra mechanics popped the hood, they couldn’t get it back down.”

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Close call: Bill Lankhof in the Toronto Sun: “The Maple Leafs’ Kris King was upset about being sent to the minors until he discovered he was going to the IHL’s Chicago Wolves rather than the (Newfoundland) Leafs.

“It could have been worse--he might have wound up with the Blackhawks.”

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Revenge? Tyrone Hill of the Philadelphia 76ers formerly played with Milwaukee, Cleveland and Golden State.

The 76ers are 8-0 against those teams this season.

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Looking back: On this day in 1959, Bob Cousy of the Boston Celtics set an NBA record with 28 assists against the Minneapolis Lakers.

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Trivia answer: Mookie Blaylock of Oklahoma, 150, in 1988. He also holds the record for steals in a game, 13, accomplished in 1987 and 1988.

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And finally: Dan LeBatard in the Miami Herald: “The NBA trading deadline passed quietly Thursday--much too quietly, if you care about the Heat--and Pat Riley lost a little more of his shine as it did.

“Riley remains the NBA’s best coach--I maintain he’s the finest coach in all of sports--but he hasn’t gotten much help recently from Pat Riley the general manager.

” . . . Yes, Miami is in first place. But has first place ever felt this bad?”